社会心理学视角下的网络迷因

Social Psychological Perspective on Internet Memes

所谓"迷因"(meme),是为解释文化信息传递模式而创造的一个概念,指作为承载文化信息的基本单位,可以通过文字、语言、姿势、仪式或其他可模仿的现象在个体心智之间的传播,这种传播能够直接塑造和生成社会群体的某种关键行为或思维方式。迷因在互联网上的快速复制和传播构成了"网络迷因"现象。传统迷因论在对网络迷因的复制、传播、保持和衰退的机制解释上存在过度强调生物学类比的倾向,而基于社会心理学的分析则表明,网络迷因的"自我复制"实际是基于传播者的模仿意愿和行为;这种传播并非"传染"而是依赖于个体寻求社会认同的心理需要和个体从众博弈的决策结果;它的保持既取决于信息本身的特性,也与个体的偏好存在关联;它的变异与个体认知能力限制及社会互动有关;它的消退与再生涉及个体对信息的适应和去习惯化,以及潮流领导者的风格嬗变和领导权让渡。从社会心理学角度重新审视网络迷因现象,不仅有助于将迷因学现有理论与相关学科的实证结果建立关联,还有利于深入理解网络迷因这一与公共生活关联日益紧密的现象背后的心理机制,从而对其进行更为有效的预测、控制和利用。

Memes are contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and that directly shape and generate key actions and mindsets of a social group. The concept of a ＇meme~ itself has become something of a meme online. Internet memes is a popular term for describing the rapid uptake and spread of a particular idea presented as a written text,image,language ＇ move~, or some other unit of cultural ＇ stuff~. The existing memetics has excessively focused on the biological analogy, and neglected to associate their theories with cognitive psychology, sociology, cultural anthropolo- gy,social psychology,and other relevant areas,and therefore failed to uncover the mechanism of internet memes. This article attempts to apply such social psychology theories such as embodied cognition,social identity,conformity,and habituation to analyzing reproduction,transmission variation,and regression mechanisms of internet memes. It finally explicates the signifi- cance of this reconstruction.